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"VANCOUVER - The Canadian government has recently decided to cut back or entirely withdraw the funding to organizations that encourage a boycott of Israel or Israeli products, including pro-Palestinian and Christian groups. One such organization is the Kairos welfare agency, which lost $7 million - half of its annual budget. Kairos is a social apparatus serving 11 Catholic and Protestant groups and churches promoting the "liberation theology" within the Canadian legal and educational establishments. Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said that the agency's budget was cut back in light of its anti-Semitic positions, adding the group preaches for recognition of such terror organizations as Hamas and Hezbollah while rejecting the Jewish people's right for a state. Kairos denied Kenney's claims and charged that the Canadian government's decision was motivated by political considerations. It further argued that criticism of Israel should not be regarded as anti-Semitism. Another organization whose funds were cut back was the Canadian-Arab Federation, which provides aid for immigrants from Muslim countries. The claim against the group was that it promoted hatred and extremism. The Federation claimed in response that by withdrawing funds from its budget, the Canadian government is shunning Arab immigrants. "

"In what is being touted as the first time humans have remotely controlled insects, University of California at Berkeley engineers successfully implanted radio-equipped, "miniature neural stimulation" systems into flying beetles-most notably, the "elephant" beetle Megasoma elephas (pictured above), which can grow up to 20 cm (about 7 + inches) in length. * » See also: 2009: Bad Year for Endangered Manatees * » Get EcoWorldly by RSS or sign up by email. There's just one problem: while the engineers are able to control the bug's muscle movements, so far, the beetles can't fly-due to the heft of the micro electronics "on board". Further refinements will need to be made to these systems. Currently, tests are being conducted with miniature solar cells, piezoelectrics (pressure-generated electric power), and other micro-electro-mechanics (MEMs) to power these devices and minimize their weight. The final step would be to equip the insects with miniature cameras and/or microphones. The "cybug" project (note: entomologists do not consider beetles to be true "bugs"; this is a colloquial term) is being funded by DARPA (the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the hope that one day the insects might be employed on the battlefield (e.g., to spy on troop movements) or perhaps even sent to spy directly on military commanders' strategy meetings. The chief engineers at UC Berkeley for this cybernetic insect project are Michel Maharbiz and Hirotaka Sato. "

"Britain and the US have agreed to intensify efforts to tackle the "evolving threat" from Islamist groups in Yemen, Downing Street has announced. Officials said the UK and the US were funding a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen. The news follows an alleged airline bomb attack over Detroit. Barack Obama has sent his top Middle East general to meet Yemen's president. The US president has alleged that the Christmas Day bomb suspect was trained by a Yemen-based al-Qaeda offshoot. Gen David Petraeus - who is responsible for US Middle East and Central Asian operations - reportedly said the US was keen to support Yemen's fight against al-Qaeda. On Saturday, Mr Obama for the first time publicly accused an offshoot of al-Qaeda, based in Yemen, over the alleged attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner over Detroit. "

"Greetings from Israel. I'm here for a time of prayer and planning with some of our Joshua Fund team. Three big stories in the news since I've hit the ground, all involving preparations for a possible massive war between Israel, Iran and her Radical Islamic allies: * ISRAEL TO SIMULATE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE ATTACK: "An exercise simulating a response to a biological warfare attack will be carried out in the Dan region next week. The exercise, which will be the largest of its kind in Israel's history, will be carried out in Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Holon and aims to evaluate the ability of the Home Front, the medical services, rescue teams and the municipal authorities to respond in the conditions created by a biological catastrophe caused either by terrorists or by accident. The exercise, code named Orange Flame, will be held on Wednesday and Thursday next week, and rescue units of the Home Front Command and special detection units of the Health Ministry, will be tasked to locate the biological hazard and deal with hundreds of citizens who were hypothetically exposed to the substance." * IDF TO BLANKET ISRAEL WITH GAS MASKS - "The Home Front Command is planning to begin distribution of individual protection kits, i.e. gas masks, to every citizen starting in late February, according to a cabinet decision taken last week. Originally, just over 60 percent of the population were to receive kits, but a decision to extend that protection to the whole country means the production of the necessary equipment has been stepped-up, and another billion shekels is needed to fund to the endeavor. The plan is to distribute protective kits to each of the nearly eight million citizens (in line with a population estimate for 2013), over a period of three years.""

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"In a luxury hotel at Suweima, on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea, the Russians held a "Track II" conference this week designed to send a clear message to the Arab world: "We are back." Medvedev talks alongside... Medvedev talks alongside Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, not pictured, after they signed bilateral accords at the Presidential Palace in Cairo on Tuesday. Photo: AP The conference, covered widely in the Arab world but hardly at all in Israel, took place just weeks after the re-launch - after an absence of some 18 years - of an Arabic version of the Moscow News. It also comes at a time of diplomatic stagnation in the Middle East that has led to increased calls from many quarters - particularly the Palestinians and the EU - for various actors in the international community to step in and impose a solution on the parties. Russia, obviously, wants to be one of these actors. Hence the two-day conference, part of the Valdai Discussion Club, put on jointly by the Ria Novosti, the Russian News and Information Agency funded by the government, and the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, the equivalent to the Council on Foreign relations in the US. The organizers invited a slew of Mideast experts from Russia and the region - including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the "State of Palestine," Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, with a couple of people from the UK, US and France thrown in for good measure - to discuss whether a comprehensive settlement is possible in the Middle East by 2020. The hope of the conference, said Sergei Karaganov of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy at its outset, was to "generate fresh ideas." Forget about it. The real agenda, it seems, was to implant in the Arab public a sense that Russia has returned to the region and is a player. Some 50 Arab media outlets covered the conference, according to its organizers, and Ria Novosti quoted Al Jazeera as saying, "This is perhaps the first large-scale

"JERUSALEM - Israel has approved construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, officials said Tuesday, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the U.S. is laboring to get peace talks moving again. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem for a future capital and demand all construction there stop before negotiations resume. The 24-unit project is being developed in an Arab neighborhood by Irving Moskowitz, an American Jew who has generously funded Jewish settlers determined to cement Israel's hold on contested areas of the holy city. The latest project is potentially even more contentious than others because it is not in any of the established Jewish neighborhoods. Instead, it is located in the heart of a predominantly Arab area of the city. Jerusalem is the most explosive issue between Israel and the Palestinians, and the new buildings would be located in one of its most volatile sites, just outside the walled Old City with its Christian, Muslim and Jewish shrines."

"(CNSNews.com) - The new federal hate crimes law has all the potential to be a major attack on religious liberty and freedom of speech, according to top religious liberty attorneys. The law was chosen the number one anti-Christian act of 2009 by the Christian Anti-Defamation League. Attorneys who defend religious rights agree: The recently enacted hate-crimes law is a threat to religious liberty. "The very fact that this law elevates 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to the same protected status as race - that in and of itself is a cataclysmic shift in policy," said Mathew Staver, president of the religious liberty law firm Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University Law School. "That will have a ripple effect far beyond the specific words of this bill," he added. "That is contrary to our Judeo-Christian heritage and beliefs, far beyond any particular disclaimer that it is not going to affect speech." Erik Stanley, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said the hate-crimes law is not about punishing crimes. It's about punishing beliefs and ideas. "It is actually a thought-crimes law," Stanley said. "There is no difference between, say, an assault that is already punishable, and an assault that is punishable as a hate crime, other than the belief of the perpetrator." "

"WASHINGTON -- President Obama, determined to show he understands middle-class struggles, is offering new initiatives meant to help people pay bills and save for retirement. Obama was ready to announce the new steps Monday in a partial preview of his State of the Union address. The proposals to be unveiled by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House include a doubling of the child care tax credit for families earning under $85,000; a $1.6 billion increase in federal funding for child care programs and a program to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income above "a basic living allowance." His initiatives also include expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and increasing aid for families taking care of elderly relatives. That program would also require all employers to provide the option of a workplace-based retirement savings plan. Obama is seeking to offer some attractive options to taxpayers, mindful of recent setbacks including the loss of a traditionally Democratic Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republican Scott Brown. Monday's rollout is designed to show sympathy with a frustrated public. "We are fighting every single day to put Americans back to work," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. The proposals are the result of the work of a middle class task force that Biden had headed. The White House says the proposals are aimed at the "sandwich generation" -- Americans struggling to care for both their children and their parents. The proposals fit into the economic message of his prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday, one that is likely to cover financial regulations, energy, education, immigration and a push to change the political tone in Washington. White House advisers see Wednesday's State of the Union speech as a key opportunity for Obama to recalibrate his message to better connect with the public and to reset his presidency after stinging setbacks. Obama has promised a sharper focus o

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Desperately needed aid from around the world slowly made its way Thursday into Haiti, where a leadership vacuum left rescuers scrambling on their own to save the trapped and injured and get relief supplies into the capital. President Barack Obama announced that "one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history" is moving toward Haiti, with thousands of troops and a broad array of civilian rescue workers flying or sailing in to aid the stricken country - backed by more than $100 million in relief funds. To the Haitians, Obama promised: "You will not be forsaken." The nascent flow of rescue workers showed some results: A newly arrived search team pulled a U.N. worker alive from the organization's collapsed headquarters. He stood, held up a fist in celebration, and was helped off to a hospital. Planes carrying teams from China, France, Spain and the United States landed at Port-au-Prince's airport with searchers and tons of water, food, medicine and other supplies - with more promised from around the globe."

"President Obama came to a Fairfax County elementary school Tuesday morning to announce that he will seek a $1.35 billion expansion of his signature Race to the Top initiative for improving public education, including provisions that will allow individual school systems to compete for the coveted federal grants. "We're going to raise the bar for all our students and take bigger steps toward closing the achievement gap," Obama said, speaking to a group of sixth graders at Graham Road Elementary, a Falls Church school where a heavy concentration of students from immigrant and low-income families achieves high standardized test scores. Race to the Top was launched last year to raise student performance by offering $4.35 billion to states and the District in exchange for adopting elements of the president's reform program. Those include more challenging academic standards; better testing to measure what students know; rigorous evaluation systems for teachers and principals; plans for turning around failing schools; and cutting edge data systems to track progress. "

Reform Program?